The most creative WoW content of the last 20 years has lost a chief developer

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There’s another departure at Blizzard. One of the big developers behind WoW: Mists of Pandaria Remix and Plunderstorm is leaving.

People have now become accustomed to the fact that large development teams have had well-known people disappear from time to time over the years. But when people who were responsible for particularly interesting content leave from Blizzard or the team behind World of Warcraft, it’s always a little sad.

This was the Plunderstorm mode in WoW:

WoW: Plunderstorm – this is how the battle royale mode works

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Who left? On his X account, Orlando Salvatore writes that yesterday, October 4th, was his last day at Blizzard. He worked there on World of Warcraft for almost 5 years and was employed as lead software engineer. He was primarily responsible for the development of popular content such as:

  • Mists of Pandaria Remix
  • Plunderstorm
  • Trailer dungeons
  • Equipment update for old characters
  • Various content from WoW Classic

    • In his farewell tweet, Salvatore clearly shows that he is particularly proud of Plunderstorm. There he writes:

    Plunderstorm was a huge, experimental effort to create something new and I couldn’t be prouder of the team for delivering it. I’ll never forget those memories of talking to the community about it, getting featured in the WoW cast, pitching it to the press, and so on. It was humbling to have the opportunity to release something that was so different than anything WoW had done before – it was a lot of hard work from so many people.

    Salvatore also makes it clear on his X account that this is not a dismissal, but that he left voluntarily.

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    This is how the community reacts: Although both “Mists of Pandaria Remix” and “Plunderstorm” did not appeal to all players, both events are some of the most creative new content that World of Warcraft has received in recent years. Both modes have gathered a loyal fan base who are already hoping that there will be another “Remix” event and a new edition of Plunderstorm at the end of The War Within. Accordingly, there is also talk about Salvatore’s departure in the WoW subreddit:

  • “Plunderstorm and MoP Remix were outstanding non-traditional game modes that really benefited the game. I hope leadership recognizes that the studio needs more people like Orlando.” – MrPMS
  • “Plunderstorm and Remix were the most fun I’ve had in the game since Legion.” – nagynorbie
  • “I’ve never had as much fun in WoW as I did with Plunderstorm and Remix. “I tried Retail just because of these game modes and I only subscribed to play these modes.” – Jorgesarrada

    • However, some also note that Orlando Salvatore was not the “mastermind” behind the game modes, but was primarily responsible for implementation as lead software engineer.

    What will Salvatore do in the future? It is not yet clear what Salvatore will do after his departure. However, he plans to announce it “soon” and so far has only let it be known that he wants to do something “new” and “different”. We’ll probably be hearing from him for years to come.
    You can currently save a lot of time in World of Warcraft – you can fill your treasury in just 30 minutes.

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